The Elemental Plane of Fire

The Elemental Plane of Fire is one of the four Inner Planes. The Elemental Plane of Fire can be reached via the Ethereal Plane, an adjacent elemental plane, or by an elemental vortex. Two known vortices to adjacent elemental planes are the Iron Crucible, which leads to the Elemental Plane of Earth, and a vortex to the Plane of Air atop Jabal Turab, the Mount of Dust. If traveling through the Deep Ethereal, a red curtain of vaporous color indicates the boundary of the Plane of Fire's Border Ethereal region. Once in the Border Ethereal, a traveler can observe the Plane of Fire and be detected by its denizens. This plane is adjacent to the Elemental Plane of Earth and the Elemental Plane of Air. Elemental vortices can occur wherever a high concentration or nearly pure form of an element is found, and can be temporary or permanent. Vortices to the Plane of Fire can often be found in pools of molten lava or the upwelling of magma in active volcanoes. Temporary gates could be created by the plane shift spell or the abilities of high-level druids.

Geography

Arriving on the Plane of Fire is like stepping into the flaming maw of an ancient red dragon; if one doesn't have protection or immunity from temperatures high enough to melt stone then death is swift. The following discussion assumes a visitor and all their clothing and gear has this capability and either does not need to breathe or could compensate for a superheated, often toxic atmosphere that can immolate one from the inside (think cloudkill plus incendiary cloud). In general, the more fluid the elemental fire, the hotter it was and the more damage it did to unprotected material.

Unlike the other three elemental planes, the Plane of Fire has normal gravity and a landscape, although most of the "ground" is made primarily of loosely packed elemental fire and feels like walking in a swamp of hot coals. The rivers and oceans are filled with a more liquid version of the same stuff and swimming worked normally as a mode of transportation. Non-native flying creatures find the atmosphere thin and therefore do not have their usual speed or maneuverability. Visibility is hampered by the smoke coming off the flames engulfing, but not consuming, nearly every solid, liquid, or gas (and creature) on the plane. What one could see is usually distorted by heat ripples. Geographic features such as hills, mountains, and cliffs do not have a geologic lifespan because, even the more solid areas slowly move like a subterranean magma flow as seen on The Prime Material Plane. Permanent physical structures are very rare.

If the Plane of Fire has weather, it is of course hot and deadly. Rains of hot ash move about like thunderstorms, threatening those on or near the ground with hot embers and blinding ash. Those in the air must watch out for clouds of superheated steam blowing around and condensing scalding water on exposed surfaces. The water quickly evaporates and the cycle begins anew. Easier to avoid, but just as deadly, are the rivers of magma and "firefalls." Matter from other planes either evaporates, burns to ash, or melts into magma. Magma mixed with elemental fire forms a rapidly moving, incredibly hot slurry that courses around the terrain and occasionally cascades over a cliff edge to create a firefall, often manifesting an elemental vortex in the spectacular display. These hazards have been explained as pockets of elements from all the other elemental planes that got sucked into the Plane of Fire and cast adrift to face their fate. Cold spots can even be found, where it feels like the middle of the Raurin desert at midday.

The dangers of the plane cannot be overstated, but those that survive the trip see wonders and beauty at nearly every turn. Flame colors span the rainbow, from the vermilion of a forge hearth to the yellow-white of heated iron, from the blues and greens of alchemical reactions to the familiar candle-flame yellows and oranges. The conflagration forms fountains, jets, sheets, rivers, waves, walls, rains, cascades, clouds, swirls, and pits of brilliant incandescence on a scale found nowhere else.

Notable Locations

City of Brass - a famous refuge from the destructive heat and home of the efreet. At the will of the grand sultan, the city is protected from the pervasive smoke and flames, and visitors enjoy unrestricted vision and uncomfortable yet tolerable temperatures, but walls and surfaces are still hot enough to burn unprotected flesh on contact. The city sits in a bowl of golden brass 40 miles in diameter that floats about the plane or hovers over a huge disk of obsidian that is cracked from the heat. Architecture includes soaring towers, grand minarets, and everything from tool sheds to palaces made of brass. The treasure vaults of the grand sultan, and his wrath at any who attempt to acquire even a single piece, are legendary.
The Charcoal Palace - the seat of the great Sultan of the Efreet.

Notable Inhabitants

Marrake al-Sidan al-Hariqu ben Lazan - Sultan of the Efreet, Lord of the FLame, Potentate Icandescent, the Tempering and Eternal Flame of Truth, the Smoldering Dictator (and many other titles) rules from his Charcoal Palace in the City of Brass.

Type

Planar Sphere/Grouping

Location under

Inner Planes